At the end of the day yesterday I made these four Cactus Potholders. It was the colors that drew me to the small piece of fabric. They were similar to the colors I was working with when making my Cat Face Potholders.
I have always loved that cactus fabric, but was waiting for just the right time to use it. That was yesterday.
I’ll finish these next week also and put them up for sale when I do.
It is my fifth and last Cat Face Pillow. Eileen inspired the idea when she asked me to make two cat pillows for someone she knew who adopted a cat with three legs from Salem Community Cats. The same place that Jon and I got Zip from.
I enjoyed making those first two pillows and made two more which sold quickly. Now I’ve used up all the fabric so this is the last one.
My Cat Face Pillow is 15″x15″ with a 3″ border. It is $90 + $10 shipping. You can buy it in my Etsy Shop. Just click here.
Or you can email me at [email protected]. I take checks, PayPal and Venmo.
I look at it now and I don’t think it shows. That’s what I want, like a good dancer, I want my art to look like it comes easy.
But when you’re close to the stage you can see the sweat flying, and hear the trumps maybe even the breathing of the dancers.
The good ones make it look easy.
When I finished making the last Cat Face Pillow, I cut up what was left of the fabric and came up with seven whole cat faces.
Yesterday the cat face above was surrounded in the same browns and grays of the cat itself. But even as I sewed it together I knew it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Today I found the fabric that set these Potholders in motion.
Jon bought me the yard of fabric when we still lived in Old Bedlam Farm. He got it at a farm stand and by the looks of it I’d say it was from the 1960s. I loved it’s vintage feel, but was never able to figure out how to use it. So about a year ago, I cut it into strips and tried once again.
Nothing came of it, but I rolled the strips up and put them in a box with other rolled strips of fabric.
In these Potholders what I wanted to bring out was the feel of the cat faces. Not the emotion, but that soft watery charcoal look combined with hard edged dots and lines.
I found that look in the vintage fabric Jon bought me so long ago. And when I cut up the strips just right, I discovered the right colors, abstract designs and subject in the flowers.
The bright graphic colors and drawn lines were just what I had imagined.
I made seven Cat Face Potholders today. I’ll finish them up next week and put them up for sale in my Etsy Shop when I do.
I’m off to Bellydance Class, but just wanted to post a picture of what my Meditation Tree poster will look like.
It’s will be the same size as my other posters, 11×17″ and will be $30 including shipping. Brad at A&M Printers is already working on it.
I hope to have it in a couple of weeks if not sooner.
I finished the last Cat Face Pillow. It’s the last one because I used up the fabric. I have a few cats left over that I’m going to make in to Potholders. I started working on those today, but didn’t get far.
I’ll have one or two of these pillows for sale in a couple of days. I’m just waiting to hear back from someone who asked about them.
I love how they wove their way into my class at The Mansion today. That’s how ideas work. One leads to another. The only thing I’ve found is that if I don’t act on an idea, it withers along with what would have grown from it.
It often happens that when I’m working on something in my studio, I convert the idea into a class for The Mansion.
This time it was the cat faces from the Cat Face Pillows I’ve been making. I wanted to show how by altering a few lines or shapes you can create different expressions.
Much like the cats on the linen towel I used to make the pillows, but even more basic.
But before we began I passed around my last unfinished Cat Face Pillow so people could see what I was doing and where the idea for the class came from. I also told them the rat story from yesterday.
“Oh rats are so cute.” Susan said. And no one was really surprised. Susan likes all animals and insects. She was the only one in the class who thought it was a good idea that I let the rat go.
After that I handed out paper to each of the people sitting around the big round table in the Activities Room at the Mansion. Earlier in my studio I had drawn four squares on each piece of paper. I’d also drawn some examples of cats with different expressions on their faces.
Next I showed everyone how to draw the basic cat face shape and demonstrated how to express the emotions with simple lines.
Then they began…
Some people made only happy cats. “I’m feeling happy,” Rachel said, “so my cats are happy.”
Jennifer surprised us all. I knew she was a good artist, but she drew with such confidence and experience. Jennifer was a ballet dancer into her early twenties. She gave it up to have a family. But she said she was always good at art.
Ellen was the only one to draw her cats with colored markers. We all realized, when she was done, that the colors matched her blouse.
When I mentioned to Mary that her cats didn’t have whiskers, she said it was because he shaved them.
Most of Claudia’s cats were happy. But I loved the expression on the one below. As if she was trying hard to be happy, but was also acknowledging the realities of life.
I made one and a half Cat Face Pillows today. I didn’t get to putting the backing on the second one and stuffing it.
As long as the rat is really gone, I should be able to get this pillow done tomorrow. One of them may be spoken for, but then I’ll put the other one up for sale in my Etsy Shop. The pillow is 15″ square with a 4″ border. They are $90 + shipping.
I’m also working with Sara Kelly on making my Meditation Tree into an 11×17″ poster. We’re trying some colors for the border, but I haven’t made a decision yet.
And if I can’t find a backing for our refrigerator, (the one that Bud shredded trying to get rat), I’ll be making one out of cardboard. Seems it’s a more important part of the refrigerator than I would have thought.
I saw just the smallest flicker of movement in the marsh this morning. I had to focus to the mallard couple. And as quickly as I saw them, they disappeared.
Since Kathy asked, I spent my morning making another Cat Face Pillow. Kathy, who sent me the linen towel with those great cat faces on it, left a message saying if I made any more she’d like one for her sister who just rescued a cat.
I have to admit, framing those individual cat faces and sewing them along the edges is my favorite part of making these pillows.
I have enough fabric for at least one more pillow, maybe two. I’ll offer one to Kathy and put the others up for sale in my Etsy Shop when I get them done.
Buy these! YOU CAN PURCHASE MY WORK IN MY ETSY SHOP >
